This will be the most serious and sincere article I will ever write in this column.  For those who don't know me well, I am a 100% stickler for rules and protocol.  Contrary to what some people think, rules aren't made to be broken.  Rules exist to ensure equity in whichever venue they appear.  We have referees in hockey and basketball, umpires in baseball, and Speakers of the House in government.  All of these people are there to enforce rules and discipline infractions.  Bridge is no different.

The ACBL has established an extensive rule book that has been fine-tuned over the years by the best of the best bridge scholars.  When these rules are followed, the playing field in bridge is equal for everyone.  In every environment there can be some reason to be silent or soft on some rules.  Unfortunately, when this happens there is often a snowball effect that leads to other rules being broken or mangled.  There is really only one way to fix this, .... either forget about almost all the rules of bridge, or enforce them all.  I think for the Algoma Cambrian Club, the time for the latter is upon us.

Viewing the traveller on the Bridgemate, in this author's opinion, is 100% unethical.  It has been a hotly contested topic over the past year.  It was thought that the concensus is that most members want to see the travellers, so that must be the right thing to do.  It was argued at a membership meeting, and people wanted it brought to a vote.  Two things put an end to that thought.  The first was that is was the concensus of the Directors that viewing the travellers was receiving unauthorized information, and as such, against the rules of the ACBL.  Although the rule book does not specifically identify this misuse, they concede that individual clubs could make isolated rulings on this topic.  Since our Directors were opposed to viewing the traveller, the ruling was leaning in that direction.  The Board of Directors however, decided to try and reach a happy medium with all involved.  Firstly, they decided that the club would not be micro-managed every time a dispute occurred and turn to a vote of the membership.  The club will not be managed by plebecites, but rather the Board of Directors elected to do so.  In weighing the information, the Board decided to allow the viewing of the travellers silently, with no information being exchanged between players.  The Bridgemates were to be viewed quickly by the players at the table wishing to do so, and returned to the North player immediately.  This author (in my capacity as a player and nothing more), has observed this practice being violated far too often.  As a player, I am about to challenge the viewing of the travellers to rectify this, .... not a threat, but be forewarned.

Another forum on our website has been trying to guide players with the proper use of terms and rules in the "I Did't Know That!" articles.  The writers of those articles are frustrated that their efforts to guide people into proper play and ethics has almost been ignored.  The improper use of "alerts" and "announcements", apparent use of unauthorized information, the lack of improperly filled out convention cards, the referring to convention cards during bidding, the keeping of notes on the scorecards during bidding and the play, and the dummy's wandering hand suggesting which card for declarer to play are all blantant violations of some ACBL rule that our members seem to think should be allowed during play.

It has gotten to the point whereby violators become "annoyed" or "offended" if this is suggested, or if a director is called.  The player looking for protection or rectification from the director should never feel intimidated in their want or need to call a director.  Thankfully, our directors (for ther most part) don't feel intimidated, but they must be called in order to make proper rulings.

Now I am speaking as the club President in saying that I think our club needs to establish how we will enforce the rules of the ACBL.  We need to have all the directors on board to make uniform, just decisions.  We also need compliance (not necessarilly acceptance) from players in the club. 

The arguement from some people is that our club is a "social" club.  News Alert, .... almost ALL clubs are "social", but they still have rules to follow.  Following the rules won't make it any less "social" to play, but will make it a fair playing field, with almost no reason to feel disatvantaged or disenfranchised.  It is a fallacy when the offenders feel that the solution to the problem is to simply allow the non-offenders to also break the rules to make the playing field level.  The non-offenders know the rules and wish to follow them.

I promise my next article will be much more lighthearted.  By for now.

I have been giving lessons to new bridge players over the past two years at Sault College.  There seems to be a refreshing interest by people to learn the game of bridge.  To many, I think it is more of a curiousity that ends up entrapping them to keep with it and learn more.

I usually start off the classes by having everyone give a short talk about why they are taking the lessons and what they expect to get from the lessons.  Almost everyone expresses that they have played limited card games such as poker or euchre, and the idea of bridge "interests" them.  Class number three is usually the benchmark I use to see how many students really are committed to learning, and how many are ready to drop out.  Thankfully over the past two years, most have stuck it out to the end, .... for their benefit and our clubs as well.

The most common comment by students from lesson three onward however, is, "I don't think I will ever be able to learn all this stuff".

Alas, let me tell you now you are not alone in these feelings.  I think every bridge player (myself included) have these misgivings.  When I first started playing bridge, my wife and I were partners at the table for almost three months before we stopped finishing last every night.  That night when we finished second or third last was a night to celebrate!  Since then, we have managed to elevate our game somewhat to the point of becoming Life Masters, but it wasn't an easy road, .... I don't think it is supposed to be easy!

Duplicate bridge is a competitive card game.  Any competitive game should never have an easy road to success, otherwise the challenge would soon fade away and bridge would be delegated to the card games like euchre, cribbage, and rummy.  Remember, bridge is one of four endeavors one can do to deter the onset of Altzheimer's Disease, .... the other three are learning to play chess, learning to play a musical instrument, and learning a second language.  All of these endeavors are not a task to take on lightly, .... so shouldn't leaning to play bridge.

As a teacher of bridge, I have to carefully judge the interest and comprehension of the class.  Knowing how much information a class can absorb in a series of lessons and not lose interest is a tightrope I walk every session of classes, .... but I like to push the envelope.  I would like to think most people interested in leaning to play bridge are near the top of the learning curve, and enjoy the challenge.  When I look out into the class and see a glaze come over some of their eyes, I know it is time to stop and take a breath.

A class of students that ask a lot of questions is always the best situation for a teacher.  It doesn't mean you are doing a bad job at teaching.  On the contrary, you have got their interest and most questions are asked in a way to expand on something you have said.  I always tell my classes that the only dumb question is the one that isn't asked!

It is nice when people show up to take bridge lessons with a partner, .... whether it be a spouse, sibling, or co-worker.  It creates an atmosphere of commitment to follow the lessons to the end.  Those that show up for lessons on their own have to be praised for their courage in entering an unknown venture alone, but the challenge to me is keeping them commited and matching them with a partner.  I always remind my classes of some wise information I was given when I first started playing bridge, .... playing with your spouse (substitute brother, sister, cousin, or friend in here) is not always a good idea.  Knowing your bridge partner to the point of being able to pick out their donut at Tim Horton's is not a good idea.  A good bridge partnership is based on trust and a developed comunication system.  Having a existing relationship with your bridge partner that may lead to assumptions during the game often leads to heated discussions and mistrust in a partnership.  During our play in the classes, I encourage (and often force) people to give up their partners for someone else in the class, .... this almost always leads to new friendships and a successful session of classes.

I challenge any of my students to show me where I have mislead them and said that learning bridge would be easy, .... never have, never will.  The one thing I will tell them is to never give up.  When they think they have hit a wall, ask questions, read books and articles, expand your bridge knowledge.  Learning to play bridge is a challenge and a passion that will never end with most players, so when you say, "I will never understand this game", you are probably right, ..... I will move over and make room for you, we are all in the same boat!